***Like many women, there are things I would do differently looking back, but this is the experience I wrote for basketwives.com when The Boy was just a few months old.

I arrived in Frankfurt at the end of September 2006, six weeks after my husband, and seven months pregnant! I quickly found a doctor (Dr. Hilpert) to resume my prenatal care. Dr. Hilpert was great and spoke excellent English! As a side note, he also performed the circumcision on our baby, which is unusual in Germany. Normally here, if the parents want it done, they wait until the child is 2 and put them under general anesthesia! It is also not covered by most insurances, because it is considered a cosmetic procedure.

Dr. Hilpert recommended and called a midwife for me—Katherine Bach. She was also great throughout the pregnancy, delivery and post-partum periods. In Germany, your midwife does a lot of pre-natal care, as well as post-partum visits for mom and baby! The doctor and midwife track your various tests, weight, etc in your Muttipass. Basically, this is a standard issue booklet that you are supposed to keep with you, and if you have problems away from your regular doctor, etc, you can give the booklet to the doctor you are seeing, and they have your medical/pregnancy history at their fingertips.

One option in Germany is to have acupuncture during the last month of the pregnancy. Supposedly this helps to make labor easier, etc. It did not induce my labor, but I would still do it again.

I chose the hospital solely so I could have my midwife deliver my baby, and the midwife helped me to fill out all of the papers for the registration, so when I showed up at 7 am, everything was already taken care of.

My labor/delivery experience was not typical for Germany, but because I chose a doctor and he recommended a midwife that he worked with, I was able to have my personal midwife deliver my baby, and the doctor who visited me in the hospital was the same one I saw for pre-natal care. I would suggest, if you are in Frankfurt, trying to have this set-up, because you do not want to be guessing at German terms while in pain! Katherine told me if I wanted to have her deliver my baby, she had the ability to do it at Sachenhausen Hospital (it is a small private hospital). I paid her 300 Euro to be on call the entire last month in the event I went in to labor and stay with me during the delivery. It was well worth the money! (Insurance paid everything outside of this.)

Drugs… a popular topic! Germans are not known for handing over a lot of medicines, but they love their homeopathic remedies. Fortunately, my doctor and midwife were open to options! The doctor had been in earlier in the day making sure that I knew my medicine based options, and when it came right down to it, I did whatever the midwife told me to do, because I had been working with her, trusted her, and she knew me quite well.

Unlike what I have read American hospitals can be like, I was encouraged to change positions, walk around (a lot…for hours at a time!), and push in any position other than on my back. I was able to take a relaxing bath, sit on a birthing ball—basically anything I wanted. I had to go back every hour or two to my room to go on the monitor to check the baby’s heart, but I was not tied down to the bed all day.

I was trying to be au-natural, but the baby disagreed. He was 13 days late, so we had to induce, and the labor was not great, so I ended up with an epidural (after over 12 hours of labor). They also give me a lot of homeopathic remedies. The anesthesiologist also spoke very good English, and my midwife told him that he had to speak English to me.

My midwife basically saved me from having to have a c-section. From the first steps of the induction to the birth of my baby… 19 hours! The lady across the hall had to have a c-section, but my midwife had me try everything, and thankfully it worked!

In Germany, you can stay in the hospital for far longer than you might really want to. I was told I could stay up to 5 days, but I left after 10 hours (my doctor and midwife okayed my departure). I was in a room with one other woman, and my baby stayed with me as much as I wanted, but I simply wanted to go home!

After I went home, my midwife came every day for a few days, and then every few days, and then the last visits were a week or two apart. She weighed the baby, checked that both mom and baby were doing ok, answered questions, and helped with breastfeeding techniques. She can also remove stitches if you have any.

The hospital issues you a yellow book called a Kinder-untersuchungsheft. This book sets out the dates for well-checks (called U1 through U9) and vaccinations. It also has space for the doctor to write the baby’s weight, length, and head diameter as well as a list of things that will be checked during the well-check. The kinderärtz (pediatrician) will also issue you an international record of vaccination.

Everything for the baby is paid for by the insurance, including vaccinations and prescriptions. However, they do not have children’s Tylenol in Germany. The doctor will give you a prescription for Paracetamol, which must be administered rectally, so if you prefer not to stick the medicine up your child’s butt, I would suggest bringing some Children’s Tylenol with you!

There are a lot of playgroups and activities in Frankfurt that take place in English. I attend a playgroup on Fridays at a church (but it is not religious based—the church donates their basement for our use), and there is tumble-tots, swimming and other activities also in English available once the baby is six months (or older).